The Campaign

With the exscuse of a documentary, on the occasion of the Holocaust Remembrance day we invited some people in a tattoo shop and proposed them one they couldn’t expect: the identification number of one of the last Auschwitz survivors, Nedo Fiano.
Then we told them his story: having dedicated his life to remembering that horror to let us know about it, Nedo is now losing his memory; thus, it is up to us to remember for him.
The video has moved the country, inviting the audience to visit a dedicated website named after the number tattooed on Nedo’s arm: a5405.com
Here, the users had the chance to keep Nedo’s memory alive interpreting his pieces of memory as if they were their own. Thanks to people of every age, race and religion a5405.com has become an actual virtual archive of Nedo’s memory, preserving and keeping it ready for the future generations.

Creative Execution

With the excuse of shooting a documentary we involved a number of people in a stunt, set in a tattoo shop. We proposed them an unexpected tattoo: Nedo Fiano’s identification number in Auschwitz. Their shocked, moved reactions to Nedo’s story have become a video which was posted by the associations Sons of Shoah and CEDEC on their social channels on the Holocaust Remembrance day. The video ended with the invitation to keep Nedo’s memory alive by visiting the dedicated site a5405.com
The film went viral over Italian social networks and reached all the country’s major newspapers and TVs. And, being inspired by the action of celebrities and influencers as well, a huge number of people have chosen to keep Nedo’s memory alive by interpreting his pieces of memory as if they were their own on a5405.com, in order to preserve not just his memory, but that of humankind.

The project’s effect was huge.
On a day that was already filled up with commemorative events, it captured the attention of the whole country with zero investment on media.
It went viral in a few hours, being shared millions of times on social networks.
Magazines like GQ, Vanity Fair, SkyNews, along with the major national newspapers like La Repubblica and La Stampa have dedicated dossiers and articles to the project, which ended up involving 140+ countries and millions of people.
Many have decided to actively participate, interpreting Nedo’s memories with video and audio recordings on a5405.com.
Among them were also many national and international celebrities, like Roberto Benigni, director and main actor of “Life is beautiful”, who had never endorsed any advertising, nor nonprofit initiative before.
Moreover, for its effectiveness in telling the Holocaust tragedy through the new media, the website has become teaching material in Italian schools and universities.

In a world in the grip of populism, fanaticism and racial hatred, it is crucial to keep the Shoah memory alive among everybody and pass it on to the new generations. But books and films are no longer enough: to actively engage the youth we need to tell the Holocaust with a new language that takes advantage of the potentials of the new media. Such a chance came up with Nedo Fiano’s story. Not only a chance to raise awareness on the importance of remembering the Holocaust with an emotionally striking stunt, but to involve the users and make them an active part in preserving and perpetuating the Shoah facts, too. Thus, as we had them visiting a5405.com and interpreting Nedo’s memories, the users could experience first-hand the feelings of the Holocaust and become guardians of a memory too precious to fade.